Meditation Allows Us to Gather & Settle
The Point of Meditation
Our nervous system affects those around us. In times when there are many unknowns we need to gather ourselves and settle. A meditation practice allows us to do this. Accepting what is doesn’t mean we stop seeing what needs attention. In fact, meditation allows us to notice where we can have the greatest positive impact.
Bringing a settled quality to our parenting, our work and our communities allows us to change our culture. We recognize the truth of interdependence. Pausing to simply take another in actually changes the interaction. It welcomes what is, including what is uncomfortable. We then see each other and are able to be together in way that is more connected.
Noble. Dignified. Relaxed and Alert
The opportunity to practice meditation is not a given. Connecting with the noble and dignified aspect of ourselves through meditation is a gift and a privilege. The devotion we engage in can only happen when life allows. Then a relaxed and alert way of being emerges that is trustworthy. It is also very much needed in the world today.
Thich Nhat Hanh, the zen teacher and activist, wrote: “When the crowded Vietnamese refugee boats met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked all would be lost. But if even one person on the boat remained calm and centered, it was enough. It showed the way for everyone to survive.”
The Biosphere of Relationality
Within the earth’s biosphere we are all in relationship. This critical connection favours relationality. It moves at a slower pace, one that invokes trust.
We need to be able to take criticism without being defensive in order to learn from each other. Create circles instead of lines of hierarchy so that every being is honoured. The power of listening deeply to the stories of people who often aren’t heard, brings things into balance just a little more.
If it’s difficult or uncomfortable this may be a sign that something good is happening. We can lean into this if we have developed some sense of stability and willingness.
By focusing on the lived experience of people during this time reveals much more than statistics ever can. We can celebrate openly the joy of being alive when we are allowed to share what is distressing.
My eight year old reminded me of this recently when he said, “Mom, if there was no sadness there would be no happiness.”
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